Baseballs of Death
"Baseballs of Death" is the fourteenth episode of Miami Vice's fourth season. The episode premiered on February 19, 1988 and repeated on July 22, 1988. Summary A Chilean police chief is suspected in a double murder and dealing for illegal cluster bombs. Plot A very seductive prostitute named Cinder (Lisa Marie) is walking down the boulevard attracting lots of attention, and picks up a john while a man named Shane DuBois (Michael Des Barres) is taking pictures of the man's car. Cinder comes back disappointed she hasn't made much money, but Shane has a secret weapon, his pictures are of the car's license plate, and he has a computer linked up to Florida DMV (who he used to work for) to run their plates. Shane calls the owner up and blackmails them into paying money to make the pictures disappear. The license plate on this car was registered to a rental company, which Shane calls and gets the name of the renter as Ernesto Guerrero (Tony Plana), who gets the call from Shane to pay $5000 or the photos show up in the newspaper. Guerrero and his driver Ramon show up, torches the pictures, and shoots both of them dead. Vice is called in due to Cinder's long prostitution rap sheet, and she gave her address as a fleabag hotel called The Tropical. Crockett, Tubbs & Gina head over to the hotel room and find the computer linkup to the DMV, and tons of film and cameras. Aftert a meeting held by DEA Agent Brody (Mark Metcalf) that Guerrero attends, Brody offers to help "unoffically", and will have an associate meet him at a bar called "Woody's". The team locates Guerrero's rented Maserati and head over to track him down. Meanwhile, Guerrero and his man arrive at Woody's to find his contact, but is referred to a different address by a tall blonde, 7211 Oceanview. Once there he finds Speed Stiles (Oliver Platt), a weapons runner, and Guerrero gives him a laundry list of weapons, including "baseballs", and threatens to kill Stiles unless he comes through. Crockett & Tubbs find Guerrero and chase him until they are stopped by Chilean guards--Guerrero drove into the Chilean Consulate. Crockett, Tubbs & Switek detain Guerrero after leaving the consulate (he was the only john without an alibi at the time of the double murder, and has no diplomatic immunity) and begin searching his car and questioning him when Brody arrives, orders their release because he is a "guest" of the Justice Department in the War on Drugs. At OCB, the team cannot tap the Consulate without State Dept. approval, not likely against an ally, but Switek finds he can monitor Guerrero's rental car phone, provided he stays in the coverage area, with no warrant required. Brody calls Guerrero wanting to get him out of the country, but the Chilean is not willing to leave until his business is finished. Switek is able to monitor some of the conversation between Guerrero & Stiles, but static blocked out most of it. They are called to the Tropical and find Ramon shot in an apparent suicide, and a note left indicating he was the one that killed Shane & Cinder. Brody is at the scene too indicating Guerrero has an air-tight alibi to both killings, but Crockett doesn't buy it. Switek sends the taped car phone conversation to SID, and Brody again calls Guerrero wanting him out of the country. SID cleans up the audio and finds Guerrero is ordering CBU's (Canisterized Bomblet Units a.k.a. Cluster Bombs, or "Baseballs of Death" in Vietnam). The United States stopped all arms shipments to Chile in 1976, but the Pinochet regime developed their own heavy arms industry with customers in Iran & Iraq (who were at war with each other at the time), with their chief export CBU's. Castillo feels Brody has become a rogue agent unknown to the DEA, refers Crockett to an ex-Company arms specialist for more info, and has everyone else on Stiles, who has five outstanding warrants. Castillo's contact informs Crockett & Tubbs about the newest version of the CBU--a "sleeper", laying on the ground dormant until stepped on, and the reason Guerrero wants them is that Chile hasn't developed the sleeper variety yet, and the Middle East is craving them. Trudy calls the numbers Stiles' has from his room and finds one of them is Wiley's Surplus near the Air Force Base, which is where Stiles delivers Guerrero's arm shipment, including the "sleepers", but Guerrero kills Stiles after receiving the merchandise. At OCB, Brody is called on his relationship with Stiles (having both worked at ATF previously), including $20,000 placed in his account by him, and they want to know where Guerrero is leaving from, which is the Chalk air strip, where the Vice team has the place surrounded. Guerrero then takes a woman hostage with the CBU's and demand he be allowed to leave or he'll blow up the suitcase with the CBU's. He gets away, but the plane has no gas in it and has to land back on the water. Crockett is in pursuit in the SCARAB, but Guerrero then kills a good Samaritan who thinks Guerrero is in trouble and takes his boat, leaving his lady hostage in the plane. Crockett pursues the boat, to the point where Guerrero makes a mistake, flips over a tugboat, lands on an island and he & the boat explode. Starring *Don Johnson as Metro-Dade Detective James "Sonny" Crockett *Philip Michael Thomas as Metro-Dade Detective Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs *Saundra Santiago as Metro-Dade Detective Gina Calabrese *Michael Talbott as Metro-Dade Detective Stan Switek *Olivia Brown as Metro-Dade Detective Trudy Joplin *Edward James Olmos as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo Guest Stars *Tony Plana as Ernesto Guerrero *Mark Metcalf as DEA Agent Brody *Oliver Platt as Speed Stiles *Lisa Marie as Cinder *Michael Des Barres as Shane DuBois Co-Starring *Frank A. DeVito III as Fuel Jockey *Katrina Etcheverry as Translator *Steve Geng as Schecter *Duane Huston, Jr. as Detective *Lester Kerstetter as Waitress *Rafael Lima as Ramon *Larry Litt as Sy *Kevin Quigley as Wiley *Tracy Roberts as Blonde in Club *Kim St. Leon as Stewardess "Ripped From The Headlines" *In this episode, the problem of CBUs (more commonly known as Cluster Bombs) being used in foreign wars is explored. They were used in the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, the Iran-Iraq war and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and in the War on Terror (in Iraq & Afghanistan) in the 2000s, and after the wars ended thousands of people would be killed, maimed or injured by stepping on a CBU inadverently. Notes *The plot, involving a foreign diplomat using their immunity from prosecution to engage in illegal dealing, is very similar to that of the 1989 movie Lethal Weapon 2, although in the film the antagonists are dealing in drugs rather than weapons. *Michael Des Barres sang lead for The Power Station and appeared with the band in the episode "Whatever Works". *Back in 1988, cell phones were able to be monitored by police scanners because of the technological limitations at the time. With the new 3G, 4G, and CDMA technologies now, this is no longer possible. *Switek refers to the "Pizza Connection" case in New York, a large Mafia trial that lasted from 1985-87 with fifteen convictions. *The arms embargo against Chile lasted until 1989, however Crockett references Jimmy Carter stopped the arms shipments, but Ford was president in 1976, Carter would assume office the following year. Music *"Pump Up The Volume" by M/A/R/R/S (Opening where Cinder is walking down street) *"Twenty Killer Hurts" by Gene Loves Jezebel (Guerrero at Woody's) *"Breakaway" by Big Pig (Stiles gets CBU's, then killed by Guerrero) *"Running on the Rocks" by Shriekback (Guerrero tries to escape on the plane and boat) Quotes *"Down there in Chile, this (his policia chief title) may give you a license to kill, here in Miami, it don't mean squat!" -- Crockett to Guerrero Category:Miami Vice Season 4 Episodes